WITH YOU
(for Rosemary)

when i am with you i am
with all the roses of a thousand years;
roses as yet untarnished by time;
roses more decorative than a child’s
playpen, and almost as pleasing.
when your hair illumins
the secret desires of my squirreled
heart, i see vague petals
leap across the watershadows
that bound the distance between
our souls, when i am
with you it is as if nightfallen
music has enchanted the grass
whose sweetness goes untainted
by the white ale of the moon.
what strange festivities
abound when your armdreams
engulf the shadow of
my abyss, when your lips
single out my misery from
amongst still stolen ashes.